Love is in the air. Red roses are selling like hotcakes and teenage hearts are skipping a beat in anticipation. Valentine’s Day may be an imported concept, but love, certainly, is a universal one. It has been around since time immemorial and has spared none. Artists may be notorious for their solitary practices, but Cupid’s arrows have stubbornly found their way into their creative spirits too. There have been many artistic love affairs that have broken conventions at times, served as inspirational muses and created new genres. These romantic sagas have often been short-lived yet transformative and sometimes have lasted a lifetime, giving birth to masterpieces.
Turning love into a performance
The bitter-sweet romance of performance artistes Marina Abramović and Ulay produced some of the most iconic works in art history. They met in 1976 and it was love at first sight. He found her ethereal and she found him wild and intoxicating. Together they travelled across Europe in a rusty old van, even living in it, and taking their performances to villages and towns. Their concepts were physically demanding, pushing the limits of their trust. For instance, in their piece titled Rest Energy, Marina completely relinquished control and put her life at risk when they both balanced each other on opposite sides of a drawn bow and arrow. With the arrow pointed at her heart, all it would have taken was one false move from Ulay for her to be killed. It was a powerful portrayal of trust that can only be experienced by two people in absolute love.
The couple collaborated and embarked on a series of such challenging performances until they eventually announced their ultimate project in 1983. Called The Lovers, they decided to set off walking from opposite ends of the Great Wall of China to meet in the middle and wed. They were completely unprepared for the endless paperwork and the lack of understanding by the Beijing authorities, for who in their right minds would want to get married on the Wall? It was only in 1987 that they could finally obtain the necessary permissions from the Chinese government but a lot of things had changed by then. The couple had separated due to their differences. While fame was welcomed by Marina, Ulay rebelled against the inevitable commercialisation of their art. Nevertheless, the walk was still undertaken but with the intention of meeting in the middle to bid their final goodbyes. They never set eyes on each other for 22 years after, until one day, Ulay made a surprise appearance at her performance at MoMA and she reached out to hold his hands, with tears in her eyes. The emotion of the moment moved audiences worldwide and with Ulay’s recent passing in 2020, their love will always be remembered as one that changed contemporary art.
Chiseling love
Whether French sculptor Auguste Rodin is a familiar name or not, his sculpture The Thinker surely is. Depicting an impressively sized nude male, seated on a rock in deep thought, The Thinker has captivated most of us for its stark portrayal of introspection. The man who created this astounding piece, however, was instead captivated by a fellow sculptor. When Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel met in 1882, they were smitten. She was 24 years younger than him and had reached nowhere near the fame that his towering sculptures had earned him. But then, love knows no such worldly differences, does it? When she joined his studio as an assistant at the age of 19, the 43-year-old Rodin was taken aback by her expertise in handling clay. Their affair was passionate and deeply influenced each other’s work. They made moving portraits of each other and sculptures of delicately entwined bodies in clay, caught in ecstatic embraces.
The relationship did not last, unfortunately. After years of romance, work, and misunderstandings, Claudel called it off and they went their separate ways to pursue their own careers. While Rodin’s popularity peaked, she was not so fortunate. Ostracised by her family for pursuing art and for her choice of Rodin as a lover, she found it difficult to get funding for her work especially because her style did not fit into conservative tastes. Her precarious financial condition left her mentally ill. Her mother insisted on locking her away in an asylum even though the doctors advised against it. After 30 years in confinement, she passed away in relative obscurity.
Rodin, however, never forgot her. He anonymously sent her money and also insisted that a room be reserved for her works in the future museum that would house his sculptures after he had bequeathed his collections to the French state. His request was fulfilled only years after their passing and today, the lovers may be no more but the sculptures that stand as a testimony to their love speak to the viewers from the confines of the museum.
When love crosses shore
This Indian love story reads like a Bollywood script. When Swedish tourist Charlotte Von Schedvin visited Delhi in 1975 along the famous hippie trail, she spotted Indian artist PK Mahanandia making sketches and decided to get her portrait done. Unsatisfied with his drawing, she came back the next day but was still not pleased with the result. Meanwhile, Mahanandia could not get it right as he was drawn to her like a magnet, the moment he saw her, which proved to be a distraction. The two started conversing and she accepted his offer to travel to his village in Orissa. She too fell in love with him during the journey and the couple was welcomed by his family. It was soon time for her to return to her country but only after extracting a promise from him that he would join her later. He waited to save up enough for a flight ticket and when he realised he couldn’t, he decided to cycle all the way to Sweden! Starting his journey in 1977, he cycled for 70 km every day, crossing several countries like Afghanistan and Iran and finally reaching Europe after four months. Tired and aching, he reunited with his love, and in a fairytale ending, the couple now live happily ever after with their children.